TeX is a great piece of software with a traditionally specific set of
users: mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists in the
field all at least know what TeX is simply because it is so pervasive
in that domain. TeX is a fantastic tool for their job and mentors
will commonly teach their students how to use the tool to get the job
done. However, newcomers to TeX are rarely – if ever – given a good
education on all the different players – what goes into getting them
from introduction to installation to a finished product. I hope this
article will answer some of these questions you never knew you had.

While I’m not a member of the LaTeX3 Project,
I find myself very much invested in its success.
Not only do I want the project to succeed in overtaking LaTeX2e,
I also want the project to make itself accessible to
those who would not have considered it in the days of 2e.
Creating a good solution requires much more thought than one would immediately think.
Considering the problem at hand will perhaps bring to light the complexities involved
and spark further conversations about potential solutions.

In the very few venues that TeX known,
it is very often looked at as an antiquated technology
that has long been superseded by more ‘modern’ systems
such as the Microsoft Office suite of products
and the ubiquitous (and wonderful) Google Docs.
Why are TeX systems viewed like this,
and what can be done about it?
If you use TeX, is it worth it to actively show others?
If you don’t use TeX, is it worth learning,
and how much do you actually need to learn?

Off-Topic

It’s been a long, confusing day as I’ve migrated some of my old
content to Jekyll hosted by GitHub Pages served by DreamHost. In the
hopes of saving some poor soul out there the same pain I’ve been
through, I’m going to make this as simple and straightforward as I
can. I drive stick with Jekyll on Mac OS X – I do not use GitHub’s
page generator. If you want to use the page generator, you may still
use this guide as a reference, but I’m sorry that it won’t line up
perfectly.

I’ve been working on a project recently for a friend’s research,
which needed a decently specialized piece of hardware.
As I was at the time in a course that more-or-less guided the class
through several ‘miniature’ projects
(they weren’t really that miniature in the end),
I eagerly agreed to help her out.
Turned out to be slightly more than I bargained for.